1. Field of the Invention.
The present invention relates to devices for reading the electric energy consumption, and more particularly, to such devices that utilize the user's telephone connection to transmit the energy consumption to the utility's offices periodically along with other information.
2. Description of the Related Art.
Power meters are commonly read by physically sending a person to write down the readings of different users in a geographical area. This requires a small army of employees dedicated to this task with not infrequent hazardous conditions around the premises where these meters are located (dogs, etc.).
Applicant believes that the closest reference corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,545 issued to Takeshi Abe in 1976. However, it differs from the present invention because it requires a central terminal that queries the remote terminals over the telephone lines and then the energy consumption is transmitted to the central station. This requires considerable amount of hardware and it is intended for buildings with several users in order to justify the cost of a dedicated telephone line.
Other patents describing the closest subject matter provide for a number of more or less complicated features that fail to solve the problem in an efficient and economical way. None of these patents suggest the novel features of the present invention.